ReadyNAS Duo overheating

[djrobsd]

We have been having unusually hot weather in San Diego, and the ReadyNAS Duo has not been a happy camper, this message keeps getting emailed to me:

Disk on channel 1 reports a temperature of 56C / 132F.
Disk on channel 2 reports a temperature of 55C / 131F.

Please shutdown the system immediately for service.

I also got this message 2 weeks ago. I thought it was a dust issue since the unit is almost a year old now and has never been cleaned so I took it apart and blew all the dust OUT of it, and cleaned all the parts, grate, etc to make sure there is no airflow blockage.

The temperature in the room where the NAS is located is about 78 degrees F.

I'm wondering if maybe the fan is not working inside the ReadyNAS Duo. Shouldn't it email me an alert if the fan has failed or the fan speed is not spinning up to spec? Isn't the fan usually noisy, especially if the drives get this hot shouldn't it be spinning loud and fast to try and cool them off?

BTW, the device is at the latest firmware posted on Netgear's site, not that it probably effects cooling inside the unit.

Any ideas how to get this sucker cooled back down so I don't risk permanent data loss if both drives overheat and fail?

 

[r_manic]

BTW, the device is at the latest firmware posted on Netgear's site, not that it probably effects cooling inside the unit.

That depends: did the problems start after you installed the firmware update?

 

[djrobsd]

Wow R_maniac, come to think of it, I actually did update the frmware to the latest one about 3 months ago when my client first hired me to maintain his systems. Are the newer firmwares known to have issues with the fan speeds?

I noticed that even though the temperature is rising, the fan is not spinning faster.

When I turned it on, the hard drives were at about 85F. They are now up to 114F and climbing, but the fan is staying around 1700-1900RPM and it has not increased. I recalibrated, and it spun up real fast and then slowly came back down, but that was just for the recalibration and now it's back to 1700-1900RPM and the drives are still hot, 114F.

Isn't the fan supposed to spin faster as the heat in the enclosure increases?

 

[sub mesa]

Try to pick 5400rpm disks next time as they dont require active cooling. With virtually all other mechanical disks you need airflow over the drives or they will become warmer than you want them to.